Financial services and cloud adoption: fast-tracking to the future

The AWS Cloud is enabling scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions for banking and payments, capital markets, and insurance organisations, from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, we recently announced the achievement of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Financial Services Competency status. Securing this competency is an important step in our broader effort to support such organisations with their digital transformation.

Considering all the disruption taking place within business today, you could make a good case for financial services being the sector most affected by the changes happening within it and outside of it. The landscape within financial services is evolving at a rapid pace. The industry is being disrupted not by the emergence of Fintech organisations, but by the growing expectations of consumers. These consumers are seeking the greatest possible experience and are increasingly switching from traditional players, giving their business to organisations that focus on providing exceptional customer outcomes. These demands from consumers are driving the need for change and greater efficiencies, so that product functionality and innovation can thrive. However, organisations are also having to tackle new regulations and stricter compliance around the protection of customer data and the transparency with which they operate. Political events such as Brexit have further muddied the waters and raised questions about the location of personnel, data and IT systems. Pressure on EU organisations to improve their position on capital and liquidity are forcing businesses of all sizes to find ways to drive efficiencies and reduce costs where possible. We’re engaging with many organisations who are struggling to balance such priorities effectively.

Many of our financial services customers are starting to transition key business services to AWS to help strike this balance and enable the agile development of customer orientated products, alongside a rigorous approach to compliance. The inherent use of automation within the AWS platform, enables rapid delivery of new features that might’ve previously taken weeks to complete. This transition away from on-premise facilities and physical assets offers the ability to control costs in a more effective manner; these savings can then be reinvested into important business projects.

In addition, the move to AWS offers organisations the ability to reduce risk within their business by increasing the security and resilience of core business systems. It also allows democratised access to new technologies that businesses can utilise to increase customer intimacy, such as data analytics and machine learning. These services can help financial services to understand important behaviours within their customer base and tailor their delivery of services accordingly.

Designing and operating AWS environments requires experience and expertise to ensure that services are resilient, secure and scalable. A transition often exposes new technologies and processes that organisations require assistance with. Ensuring that security ‘in the cloud’ is properly executed and that governance and control are ever present in a dynamic environment are important components that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Whatever you require to make the most of AWS, there’s a good chance that we’ve delivered it before. Our role is to help our customers grow their business, save costs where possible and reduce risk associated with their IT environments. One customer we’ve worked with recently is Orwell Group, where we helped them transition from on-premise data centres to AWS. Orwell is a London based financial services group delivering cash management and payment services in white label to other banks, so they can expand into other markets and operate in a cost-efficient way.

‘Rackspace helped us transition to AWS quickly and effectively, giving us the time we needed to deploy and test our product functionality. Their subsequent AWS managed services and security managed services give us peace of mind that our applications will remain transactional and that our AWS environment is scalable and secure from external threats.’

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James Morris is a sales and commercial leader, with 8+ years’ experience in engaging with organisations who require guidance and support when transitioning to a cloud-based delivery model. As Managed Public Cloud Commercial Manager, James is responsible for financial performance, customer engagement and Go-to-Market. He is well versed in helping organisations understand the opportunity of moving to public cloud, articulating the business benefits of using new and disruptive technologies. James is most interested in meeting customers, understanding the opportunities and challenges they face today and witnessing the positive changes that occur through our managed cloud services.